The Last Time
by WeWereJustChildren
Summary: Fred and Hermione have been in a secret relationship for a while now but Fred's constant hook ups with other girls have 'caused Hermione too much heartbreak. She's calling it quits even if it breaks her heart more. Can Fred ever win her back?
1. The Last Time

Hermione had ignored the first time the locket around her neck became comfortably warm. She had also ignored the second time and the third but now on the fourth time she couldn't ignore it any longer. Sighing, Hermione closed the book on her lap and made her way down from her dormitory. It was after curfew and if she were caught leaving the common room she would certainly be in trouble but she'd done this so many times before she had practically memorized the safest ways to go for every night of the week. Walking down the dark corridors, Hermione pulled the locket from around her neck and held it in her hand, letting her own body heat warm it naturally which would let him know she was coming. She'd made the necklaces just over a year ago, back when they first started sneaking out to meet each other, back when it was good or at least better.

When Hermione reached the courtyard, she stood for a moment in and archway looking up at the clear sky. A scattering of stars lit up the inky darkness like fireflies and taking a deep breath Hermione took a step forward towards the lone figure that sat on a bench facing away from her. "I don't see why we couldn't just meet in the common room." She said and the figure turned around, a smile spreading across his face. "I've told you why, Hermione." He said, "If we meet in the common room someone could see us and then everyone would know about us." Hermione sighed; obviously he hadn't changed his mind about keeping their relationship a secret. Hermione wasn't even sure they could call it a relationship anymore. "Are we even an 'us' anymore Fred?" Hermione asked, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. Fred opened his mouth to reply but Hermione carried on. "I heard about you and Angelina." Fred made another attempt to speak but again Hermione interrupted him. "That's the fourth girl in the past two months, Fred." She turned her back to him and folded her arms around herself. "If you cared about me there wouldn't be any other girls."

Fred stood up from the bench and stood behind her, wrapping his own arms around hers. "Hermione." He whispered, resting his head on her shoulder. It took all her willpower not to lean back into him. "I know you don't understand it but we hide our relationship because that's the only way it'll work." Hermione thought for a moment before pulling out of his arms and turning to face him. "It's not working though, is it Fred?" She asked, "This isn't a relationship, its torture. I don't understand how you can carry on the way you do, knowing that it breaks my heart." Hermione pulled away again as Fred reached out for her, she looked to the ground, desperately trying to keep the tears from falling. "This is the last time I'm asking you, Fred." She told him, her voice barely above a whisper, "Put me first. Think about what you're doing to me. Or it's all got to stop." She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears. "This is your last year here. If we can't even make it when we see each other everyday, how are we going to make it when we barely see each other at all?" The question stumped Fred, he thought they were making it just fine, that this would be the same as last time, she'd ask him to change and when he wouldn't she'd just give up and let things carry on how they were but her eyes were so full of pain that he realized this time she was serious. "Hermione." He said again, he didn't know what else he could say, he couldn't change. He was Fred, the prankster, the flirt, the guy who had every girl and no girl. But that wasn't true, he did have a girl and she was stood in front of him now, falling apart and trying desperately not to cry.

Fred reached out his hand and gently wiped an escaped tear off Hermione's cheek. _I love you, _he thought but he could never tell her that. Using those words out loud made everything way too serious and that just wasn't the way Fred worked. Fred didn't know what to do, so he did the only thing he felt he could do. Fred turned away from Hermione and walked away. He didn't see her shatter into a thousand pieces, didn't look back to see her release the tears and didn't think about the ones that were slowly starting to fall from his own eyes.

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_I hope you enjoyed it, if you want me to carry on please review as they are the only thing that inspire me to carry on writing. I'd love to here about what you think should happen or what you think of when you read this chapter. Thanks for reading :) ~WeWereJustChildren _


	2. Everything Has Changed

_The first time Hermione and Fred met, everything changed. It was on the Hogwarts Express the very first year Hermione had attended the school. Hermione had been extremely nervous standing on platform nine and three quarters, though she tried her hardest not to show it. The platform was teeming with people, luggage and the occasional pet cat wandering round eyeing up caged owls. It took ten minutes for Hermione to finish saying goodbye to her parents and step onto the scarlet train that was almost ready to leave. The first thing Hermione did was change into her robes. She'd seen a couple of others already in theirs and was eager to put her own on. She the searched for somewhere to sit, finding an almost empty compartment, the only occupant was a chubby, dark-haired boy who held a toad. "May I sit in here?" Hermione asked, poking her head around the compartment door. The boy looked up at her shyly and nodded, "Uh sure." He said, his voice squeaking slightly from nervousness. Hermione pretended not to notice and with a smile, she sat down opposite him. The train juddered into motion and it wasn't long before the world was flying past the window. _

"_I'm Hermione Granger." She said politely holding out her hand for the boy to shake. The boy moved the toad to one hand and shook Hermione's outstretched hand with his now free one. The toad took this opportunity of a looser grip to jump from the boys hand and hop quickly out the compartment door that Hermione had left slightly ajar. "Trevor!" The boy shrieked, startling Hermione slightly. "Better catch your toad, Trevor." Hermione said and the boy began to shake his head. "Trevor's my toad, I'm Neville." He said, slightly distraught as he quickly went to the compartment door to capture the escaped toad. Hermione felt a little responsible for the toad's escape as Neville exclaimed, "He's gone!" Hermione stood up from her seat and went to join Neville at the door, it was true, the toad was no where in sight. "Don't worry, Neville, I'll help you look for him." _

_The two set off in opposite directions down the train in search for the missing toad. "It couldn't have got far." She mumbled to herself. Hermione began to check the different compartments, earning some strange looks from the other passengers on the train. At one point she thought she heard a croak from the next compartment along but when she went in to check she couldn't see any sign of Trevor. "Has anyone seen a toad? A boy name Neville has lost one." She asked the two boys that were sat in that compartment. "No." One of them – a tall, redheaded boy – replied shortly. Hermione noticed he held a wand in his hand, "Oh, are you doing magic?" She asked a little more interested, "Let's see then." She said; a rather proud smile on her face. The boy said a few words and pointed his wand down at a rather pathetic looking rat that sat rummaging through sweets on the boys lap. The spell startled the poor rat but other than that it did very little. The redheaded boy looked over to his dark haired friend and shrugged. "Are you sure that's a real spell?" Hermione asked and earned a slight scowl from the redhead. "Well it's not very good, is it?" Hermione said, holding back a laugh with a smile. "Of course, I've only tried a few simple ones myself but they've all worked for me." She strode into the compartment and sat opposite the shorter, dark haired boy. "For example," She said and – startling the boy – pointed her wand to the centre of his broken glasses._

"_Oculus reparo." Hermione said rather proudly, the boy's glasses immediately repaired themselves. Both boys looked at Hermione startled and rather impressed. "That's better, isn't it?" She said putting her wand away once more as the boy took off his glasses to inspect them. It was then that Hermione noticed the scar on the boy's forehead. This lead on to introductions before "You two better change into your robes." She suggested, "I expect we'll be arriving soon." Hermione stood up from her seat and headed to the compartment door. "You've got dirt on your nose by the way, did you know?" She said to the redhead, whose name she now knew to be Ronald Weasley. "Just there." She said pointing to the right side of her nose. With that, the bushy haired girl left the compartment to continue her toad search. She hadn't known back then that these two boys would become her two closest friends._

_Wandering a little further up the train, checking other compartments as she went, Hermione opened the door into another compartment. "Have any of you seen a toad?" Hermione asked as she her eyes searched the floor. A dark skinned boy shook his head and said "Nope."_

_Hermione was about to leave when one of the other boys spoke up. "Why in the name of Merlin would anyone have a pet toad?" He asked "Least of all a girl." _

"_Oh, it's not my toad, it belongs to Neville…" She replied, trailing off as she looked up into the deepest pair of brown eyes she'd every seen. The boy had red hair and was smiling at her in a way that for some reason made Hermione blush. "Hello," The boy said "I'm Fred, third year and resident prankster at Hogwarts." Hermione smiled back. It felt like butterflies were fluttering around her stomach. "Hermione Granger. First year." She replied. _

"'_Scuse me shorty." Another boy's voice said from behind her and looking over her shoulder she found herself looking at a face almost identical to the one in front of her; though this one didn't seem to affect her as much as the other had. Hermione took a step out of the way and the boy who must be his twin stepped into the compartment and sat down. "And this is George." Fred said, "My twin and partner in pranking." At that moment the train juddered to a halt and masses of students began to leave their compartments and exit the train. Hermione was thinking about how she wanted to get to know Fred better when she heard her name being said. "Are you coming Hermione?" Fred said, holding open the compartment door. She nodded and the two left the compartment and parted ways on the platform. _

"_Did you find him Hermione?" A frantic looking Neville asked as he approached her. She shook her head, "I'm sure he'll turn up Neville." She said and the two walked towards the largest man Hermione had ever seen…_

"'Mione?" A girls voice dragged Hermione out of her thoughts and she found herself face to face with Ginny. "Hermione where has your mind been?" The redheaded girl asked, "You've been in a world of your own for the past week." She exclaimed. Hermione shrugged, it certainly didn't feel like a week had passed since she broke up with Fred. "I'm worried about you 'Mione." Ginny continued a genuine look of concern on her face. The two were sat in the library, surround by books Hermione had taken off the shelves. "I'm fine Gin." Hermione shrugged and flicked the page of the book that lay open in front of her. Ginny shook her head. "You are not. Tell me what's going on." She demanded. Hermione didn't want to fight with Ginny and after a few more back and forths she eventually sighed and covered her eyes with her hands. She explained the relationship she'd been having with Fred and how he'd hooked up with other girls while they were together and well, everything. Ginny didn't understand it at first but after a moment it all really sunk in. "I'm going to kill him!" She said raising her voice loud enough to earn a warning from the librarian. Hermione protested Ginny's want to confront Fred but the younger girl wasn't even hearing her as she stormed out of the library in search of her older brother. Hermione packed away as fast as she could without getting told off by the librarian and followed Ginny out.

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**I am so sorry that you had to wait this long for the second chapter. I have really got no muse for writing at the moment but hopefully it's not too sucky. Thank you for all your reviews for the first chapter, they really helped me through when I had no will to write at all. Please review this chapter too? ~WeWereJustChildren **


	3. The moment I knew

_Fred had hurt Hermione in little ways during their relationship, cheated on her once or twice, maybe a few more times, he'd forgotten important things and said hurtful things but the biggest had been just over three months ago, on her birthday. Birthdays were always big in Gryffindor house, any excuse to have a party really, and so Hermione had been looking forward to it since term had started. _

_She'd met up with Fred at lunch, it wasn't often they got any time to speak during the day since Fred insisted they keep everything a secret. At this moment in time they were in the library, it wasn't unusual for Hermione to be here and Ron and Harry often left her alone and Fred wouldn't be caught dead in the library so no one would look for him in there. The two sat at a table in one of the Library's corners, there hands linked under the desk. _

_Hermione talked excitedly about her birthday, Fred hadn't given her a gift but she didn't mention it, she didn't really care about materialistic things. Fred wasn't focused on Hermione at all; wasn't even looking at her but still she continued to talk. "You'll be there won't you, Fred?" She asked. He looked up from the desk, a blank expression on his face; he didn't have a clue what she'd just been talking about. "You'll be at my party, won't you?" She asked again and Fred smiled at her. "Of course I will, I wouldn't miss it for the world." Hermione wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug and for a moment he hugged her back before remembering they were in public and gently pushing her away again._

_Laughter and fun filled the Gryffindor common room but Hermione couldn't join in. She sat on one of the crimson sofas watching the portrait hole. It was ten minutes to curfew and Fred still hadn't arrived. George on the other hand had arrived a good twenty minutes ago, alone, which was the first thing that began to worry Hermione._

"_Hermione!" Ron and Harry exclaimed roughly plonking themselves down on either side of her, large grins spread across both their faces. "What are you doing sitting here? You should be enjoying your party." Harry said, his smile faltering a little. Hermione took a deep breath and put a smile on her face, "Oh, I just needed a minute." She said, her eyes darting to the portrait hole every few seconds, waiting for Fred to just walk in, wearing his dopey smile but as the minutes counted down, Hermione's heart fell a little further. She stood up from the sofa just as the clock struck nine, curfew._

_The world seemed to slow down, Hermione stood in her violet party dress listening to everyone laughing and singing 'Happy Birthday'. That was the moment she knew, knew he wasn't coming and knew it was the beginning of the end. She couldn't stop the tears that rolled down her cheeks, back then she hadn't had the practise of holding them in. What do you say, Hermione thought, when tears are streaming down your face in front of everyone you know? And what do you do when the one who means the most to you is the one who didn't show?_

_The singing died down as people began to notice she was crying, no one moved except for Ginny who made her way through the crowd and placed her hand on Hermione's shoulder, "Hermione, what's wrong?" She asked._

_Hermione didn't know what to do, so with a heart wrenching sob she turned her back on the crowd of people and ran. She ran out of the common room, not even caring that it was past curfew. Her first thought was to go up to the astronomy tower, it wasn't in use this early on in the term and so no one would think to bother her there. She wished she'd ever gone up there for the sight she saw caused the first big tear in her heart. Neither of the two figures saw Hermione enter the tower nor did they see her leave, they were too busy entangled in one another to even notice. _

_Ginny found her a few minutes later, crying on the third flour corridor; Hermione wasn't even sure how she'd made her way there. Ginny dragged her into the bathroom and as she wiped away her tears with tissue Hermione muttered "He should have been here." Ginny didn't understand what that meant and she didn't press Hermione for details, she simply hugged her friend._

_When the two returned to the common room, the only indication that there had ever been a party were the few streamers left dangling from the ceiling and a single cupcake with a glowing candle stuck out of it left on the coffee table in the centre of the room. Ginny picked it up along with a note that sat under it. "'To Hermione, Happy Birthday, From Ron and Harry.'" She passed Hermione the cupcake and as a small smile crept back onto her face she blew out the candle._

_The next morning Hermione went down for breakfast, no one said anything about the events of last night and Hermione was glad about that. She said nothing to Fred all morning, though she could feel his eyes on her. She'd heard the rumours spreading like wildfire through the school about Fred and the Sixth year Hufflepuff girl Joanna, she ignored them though she'd seen with her own eyes that they were true. She tried to avoid him a lunch too but he managed to catch her on her way into the Great Hall and drag her into an empty classroom. _

_Neither of them said anything for a few moments but the Hermione spoke, "You said you'd be there." Fred wouldn't meet her eyes, "I know, I'm sorry I didn't make it but-"She cut him off, "I'm sorry too Fred." Her eyes were becoming watery again but she forced herself not to cry. "Which world was so good that you had to miss my birthday?" She asked even though she already knew, she just had to hear it from him. "I'm sorry Hermione, I just got caught up in some stuff and time had got away from me." It wasn't the answer she'd been hoping for, she'd hoped he would tell her the truth and just face the consequences but she'd been wrong. "Well I sa-heard some rumours about what it was exactly you were caught up in." Fred shook his head, "It's not true 'Mione." Hermione couldn't believe he'd outright lied to her yet she couldn't force herself to tell him that she'd seen it with her own eyes. She could force herself to push him away as he wrapped her in his arms and held her close to him. _

When Hermione finally caught up with Ginny, it was in the Gryffindor common room and her wand was poking quite hard into Fred's neck as he was pressed up against the wall. A group of onlookers were watching curiously from the sidelines as George tried to calm Ginny down but both Weasley twins knew how dangerous their little sister could be when she was angry. "Now Ginny, why don't you explain to Freddie exactly what he's done wrong?" George was saying but the redheaded girl wasn't listening to him, "You're a horrible person Fred Weasley and I should hex you into oblivion, the only reason I'm not going to do that is because Mum wouldn't forgive me." Hermione found is surprising how scared Fred looked even though he was a full foot taller than his sister, when Fred saw Hermione enter the room, realization dawned on his face. "Ginny, stop it." Hermione said as she shooed away the onlookers to their utter disappointment. Slowly Ginny removed her wand from her brother's neck and a little colour reappeared in his paled face. "Can someone please inform me as to what exactly is going on here?" George asked looking between his two siblings and over at Hermione who had made herself comfy on the sofa. Fred looked over at Hermione but her eyes were firmly set on the fire that burned in the fireplace. "Fine." Fred huffed, "May as well since _someone_ doesn't seem to understand what a secret is anymore." He added, shooting Hermione a wasted glare. Hermione didn't look at him as she replied, "Yes, well there are a lot of things that _you_ don't understand Fred."

I am once again incredibly sorry for the long wait and Sh*tty chapter. I hate myself for even uploading this terrible chapter but I felt that if I didn't upload something soon this would become yet another one of my abandoned tales. Please feel free to leave your hatred of this chapter in the review section. I look forward to your hatred ~WeWereJustChildren


	4. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

_It was the night of the Yule ball last year and she'd just got in a fight with Ron; the two had parted ways, him going upstairs to bed and her to an empty corridor. A few moments later Hermione had looked up to the sound of footsteps. She was a little surprised to see who it was. "What do you want Fred?" Hermione asked as the fiery haired boy slumped down beside her. "How do you do that?" He asked earning himself a confused look from her Hermione, "Do what?" She asked._

"_Always know which of us is which, how do you know I'm not George? Even our own mother can't do it!" He exclaimed, Hermione smiled which made her feel a little better than she had a moment before. "It's easy really, you're a little taller than George, and your hair's a shade lighter, your eyes a shade darker and…" Hermione let her sentence trail off and Fred shook his head, "But what about when we're not together, those slight differences won't help you then, so how do you do it?" _

_Hermione sighed; her annoyance at Ron was being made worse by Fred's badgering and she couldn't help just lose her calmness. "Well, my heart doesn't back flip when George walks into a room!" She snapped, "I don't get nervous when _George _says hello!" She added, "And I certainly don't wish George-" Neither of them found out the ending to that sentence as Fred had stopped Hermione talking by pulling her close to him and gently kissing her lips. Hermione had been too shocked to do anything, other than turn a nice shade of tomato red. Fred pulled back and looked at her with a lopsided grin, "You do talk a lot, Granger." He laughed, "If you must know I came to see if you were okay." He stood up, "I can see that you're just fine so I'm going to get back to George before he starts looking for me." With that the redheaded boy began to walk away ignoring as Hermione called after him. "Fred! Fred you can't just walk away!" She began to walk quickly after him, almost bumped into him when he suddenly stopped. They could hear the music coming from The Great Hall and Fred hummed along to it for a moment as the two simply watched each other. Hermione opened her mouth to speak but she couldn't think of any words for the situation at hand. Fred chuckled, "Whoa, Hermione Granger, speechless for the first time in her life." He bent his head closer to hers and whispered into her ear, "I might have to make that happen more often." A smirk appeared on his face as he pulled back and looked at her, waiting for her reaction. Hermione bit her lower lip, from the moment she met Fred she'd been hoping this would happen, hoping that he'd show her he liked her, even just a little and now that it had, her heart was beating so fast that she was sure Fred could hear it. Slowly, she stood on her tiptoes, reaching her hand to his chin and drawing his face towards her own. Fred's arms wrapped themselves round her waist and he gently pulled her closer to himself. Time seemed to stop as the two kissed and Hermione didn't want it to start again._

"So let me get this straight," George said looking from his brother, who sat beside him, to Hermione who sat across the room, "You two have been going out for an entire year and _you_ never told me?" He said looking at his twin. Fred shrugged, "It was on a need to know basis and well you, George, didn't need to know." Hermione laughed and all eyes turned to her, "So who did need to know, Fred? Half the time _I _didn't even know!" She shook her head in disbelief, "Well, I'm telling you now Fred, we are never, ever getting back together. Not this time." A smirk spread across Fred's face, "Oh c'mon Hermione, we both know that's not true, you never actually mean it when you break up with me." He said confidently but he didn't feel confident, not when he remembered the way she had cried when she told him it was over. While the exchange had been occurring, something dawned on George, "Wait a minute," He said, "If you've been going out with Hermione, what about all those other girls you said you'd been with?" As the realization sunk in, George's usual expression darkened, "Oh, Freddy, how could you?"

Ginny stood up from her seat, her face once more reddening with anger, "Because, he's a pathetic toad!" She shouted and tried to stride over to her older brother but Hermione had grabbed her wrist and was holding her back. "Sit down, Ginny." Hermione said pulling the girl back into her seat, the redheaded girl grumbled under her breath. "I don't want to see Fred hurt," At this Fred's face lit up a little but quickly fell again as Hermione continued speaking, "It would be pointless and most likely only get you into trouble Ginny." She looked up at Fred, "All I want is to know why? Why did you insist that you care about me then treat me like I'm nothing? Why didn't you want people to know we were together? Why did you let me get so close and then push me so far away? _Why, Fred?_"

At that moment the portrait hole opened and people began to file into the common room, Hermione's stomach confirmed her thoughts as it growled lightly, they had been here so long that they had missed dinner. Hermione had been distracted by the sudden burst of people that when she looked to the seat Fred had occupied, she found it empty.

"What going on here then?" Said a familiar voice, but to Hermione the voice seemed far away. Her eyes focussed only on the vacated chair it sunk in that even though they were no longer together he was still hurting her.

"I'll go find Fred." George said getting up and heading to the portrait hole. "I'll fill in these two." Ginny called after him, earning herself a thumbs up as George disappeared out of the common room. "Okay, boy's sit down and listen." Ginny said looking back at Ron and Harry and indicating the two recently emptied seats across from herself and Hermione. Ron opened his mouth to speak but didn't get the chance to make a sound. "Just shut up and _listen_, Ronald. With one final look at Hermione – who was paying very little attention to anything around her, lost in her own thoughts – Ginny began to tell the boys exactly what was going on.

_Okay, I hope you guys are happy that the wait for this chapter was indeed shorter than previous waiting. I also hope you're pleased with the chapter and will leave your feedback in the review box – remember reviews keep me writing so the more I get the quicker I'll write. If all goes to plan the next chapter will be mostly a 'Fred' chapter that way you – and Hermione – may just get some answers to your questions. _

_I'd also like to ask, if you decide to leave a review can it not just be asking me to hurry up? I find this more off putting than helpful, thank you. ~WeWereJustChildren_


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